Did you know – Rice is economically and culturally important to
Thailand. The country lays claim to being
the producer of the high-quality and aromatic Jasmine rice, and as the world's
top exporter. Rice occupies 55% of Thailand's arable land, and it is the staple
food of the population across income brackets.Looking past the salient facts that Thailand is the world's top exporter
and the fifth largest cultivator of rice in the world, rice has strong cultural
ties with the Thai people. Ceremonies invoking rain and bountiful harvest are
commonly performed by rice farmers before planting seasons. In 2008, Thailand exported about 10 million
tons of rice, which made-up about 33% of the world's rice trade. According to
the Board of Trade of Thailand, the biggest importers of Jasmine rice in 2009
were China, the United States, and Malaysia.Rough rice production is in excess of 30 million tonnes per year.

It was another 10km from the port
to the town of Satun where we found a nice guesthouse to stay the night. There’s not a lot happening in the little
town, so we decided to head for some off to the islands the next day.After a breakfast of rice, spicy aubergine
and shrimp curry, we were on the road again for the ride from Satun to Pakbara
of around 70km again.

Pakbara itself
is nothing more than a stretched out fishing village on the coast with the
added bonus of speedboats leaving to and from the islands. It was still low season so the boats weren’t
running to all the islands yet.Our only
option was to head for the island of Koh Lipe.

We had to leave
the bikes on the mainland and managed to leave it at the place we stayed at for
the night; we obviously had to pay for the privilege of locking our bikes to a
steel pole on their property.The island
is 63km from the mainland, and the speedboat trip took us 1.5 hours. The sea was nice and calm and we managed to
get there without feeling sick at all.One of the other passengers weren’t so lucky, a Chinese girl who turned
pale very quickly, her sea legs deserting her soon after we set off. She unfortunately made things worse for
herself by staring at the floor the whole time instead of looking out to the
horizon.Anyway, we managed to get to
the island without any mishaps on the boat by people feeling sick.

There are great
benefits to travelling in low season.
The places you visit are quiet and you get really good deals on
accommodation too.We found a very nice
little ‘resort’ on the beach, with nice wooden bungalows, great beds and very
comfortable at a third of the high season price. It was a great location with a nice
comfortable bar on the beach – to top it off; they had daily happy hour with 2
for 1 cocktail deals.We spent our 3
days on the island doing exactly what you’re supposed to do and that was
nothing, having a few drinks, going for a swim and admiring the beautiful
sunsets.

We eventually
had to leave the island and head back to the mainland. We got back to the mainland around 11am and decided
to stay there for the day and not have a late start on the road.We checked into the same hotel for the night
to sort out our bags and to do some new routes for the next few days. We also had to clean the bike chains and
replaced Mandy’s chain.Her chain
outlasted mine with double the mileage I got on mine.

We left Pakbara
our normal time, but it was a wet start to the day. We had to look for cover a few times during
the morning, but it soon cleared up.The
ride to Yan Ta Khao was like a lot of our other days, not too much happening
and just enjoying the countryside. We
did however have this truck come past us with an elephant on the back, ears
flapping in the wind.Not something you
would expect to see on the main road.

We had planned
to stop for the day around 65kms but couldn’t find anywhere. I’m sure there were loads of places, but
because we can’t read the writing, it makes it a lot much harder for us.We pushed on to the next little town where we
did find a nice place on a river. It
must’ve been very new, the place was spotless.We also bumped into a French couple cycling with bikes they had bought
in Cambodia and they had very little luggage!
I’m still trying to decide if they are unprepared or if we’re over
prepared…We arranged to meet up for some breakfast the following morning as
they were staying in a different place to ours.

We headed out
of Yan Ta Khao a little later than normal after our breakfast stop with the
Frenchies and stopped at a small Tescos for some snacks for the day.

It was a good
start to the day until it was time for a bit of bull fighting. Yes, the inevitable happened, the first
accident.We were on the main highway, a
dual carriageway for 2 lanes going in each direction and a nice big hard
shoulder. We just came over a little
hill and were starting to go downhill.I
saw a man walking towards us on the hard shoulder leading a bull on a 3 meter
piece of rope. I started to slow down a
bit and looked back towards Mandy, making sure she saw it too.The road wasn’t too busy, but there were
still a lot of cars. I moved over as far
as I could towards the first lane, but couldn’t go into it because of the cars
coming past.At this stage, I slowed
down to about 30km/h. The bull obviously
had different ideas and was ready for a fight.Just as I was about to pass him, he decided that wasn’t going to happen
and came right in front of me. By this
time it was too late for me to do anything.I obviously tried to brake, but it was too little, too late. I went straight into it and I think I went
flying over it.Mandy was still behind
me at this stage and told me afterwards that it carried on going into the
road. He may have won the battle with
me, but it was a different story when it got hit by a Hilux.The bull ended up back on the hard shoulder
because of the impact, legs in the air, and the front of the Hilux was just
about gone. Another car also went into
the back of the Hilux, but luckily not too much damage to it.

By this time, I
was back on my feet, trying to figure out what just happened.Mandy got a massive fright behind me, and
just as I got myself together, I saw her running towards me, probably more
shocked than what I was. I quickly got
my bike out the road and picked up all my panniers.They all came off the bike and were lying all
over the road, luckily all intact. A
quick assessment was done by us to see if there was any major damage to me and
the bike before we moved to a little side road to recover.Adrenaline was probably still pumping through
my veins and I eventually relaxed a bit.
I had a few sweets to get some sugar into me and some water and sat down
for a bit.I only suffered from some
grazes on my left ankle, and my lower back/bum was a bit sore. I must’ve landed on it.I also managed to crack my helmet – it’s got
a nice split down the middle from the back up; who knows what it would’ve been
like if I didn’t have my helmet on.

By this time, a
nice little crowd was building. The bull
was still lying in the road, but to be honest, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse
about it.For all that I could care, it
could be dead, a bit harsh I suppose. We
were very lucky, in that a one of the Thai woman could speak very good
English.She very kindly stayed there
with us the whole time and even came to the police station with us, helping
with the translation and the police report.
By this time, it was around lunchtime and we were in no state of
cycle.We also had to get to someone who
could fix my front pannier rack. The
impact broke the steel pannier rack and we had to get someone to weld it for
us.The very kind Thai woman was on her
way into the next big town of Trang with some of her family and they offered us
a lift in their pickup truck. They also
stopped at a local welder where we got the racks fixed in no time.We also now had the added dilemma to find a
new helmet too.

We eventually
got to the town centre and booked into one of the hotels where we stayed for 3
nights in order for my ‘weary’ body to recover.
I was very stiff next few days and everything had to be done in slow
motion.We also decided it was time for
us to send a few things back to London. We
have never used our sleeping bags because they are just too warm.We did however find a nice small, compact
summer bag here for next to nothing which we decided to buy. All in all, we sent 7kg back to London.Let’s see if it will make a difference, and
fingers crossed, the recovery will be quick.

22 October 2012

Did you know – Every year, the people of Thailand celebrate a
vegetarian festival. This celebration occurs during the ninth lunar month of
the Chinese calendar. The ninth lunar month can occur during the months of
September or October in any given year and lasts 10 days. During the festival, Thai people practice
jay. The word jay is taken from Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, and it means eight
precepts observance.One of the eight
precepts is the avoidance of eating any animal meat during the vegetarian
festival. During the festival, Thai
people practicing jay must keep their body clean, keep their eating utensils
clean, and make sure they do not share utensils with people not observing the
festival. They must wear white clothing as often as possible, avoid killing or
harming animals, and be mindful of their actions and thoughts.The most unique aspect of the vegetarian
festival is the actions of the mah song.
A mah song is a man (or very rarely, a woman) possessed by a god during
the festival. Mah songs parade through the streets, walking across hot coals or
exploding fireworks and bathing in hot oil. They pierce their mouths, cheeks,
ears, and arms with fish hooks, knives, razor blades and bamboo poles. The
deity residing within the mah song protects their body from pain and injury.
This is confirmed to onlookers by the fact that that very little blood or
scarring occurs.

We left Trang after a few days
rest and recovery after the accident.I
must admit, it must’ve affected me more than I thought. I was constantly on the lookout for some
activity on the side of the road, or something lurking in the bushes, waiting
for me to pass and then jump in front of me.With these wild images flashing through my head, I decided to eventually
listen to some music while riding. This
did the trick for me and I was a lot more relaxed, listening to something to
distract me a bit.It turned out to be a
pretty uneventful day, thank goodness.

We were heading from our
overnight stay in Pak Meng Beach to Koh Lanta (an island very close to the
mainland). This wasn’t our initial plan
– we were planning to do a much shorter day, but as we all know, plans are made
to be changed.It turned out to be a hot
long day; 10am saw the temperature sitting at 37 degrees already.

We had a mad dash to the ferry in
the late afternoon.It was almost 5pm
and we had just over an hour left before the sun went down. To top it off, there was one massive storm building.The last km or so was almost like a sprint to
the finish line to avoid getting completely soaked. We made it to the ferry just in time, quickly
bought our tickets and got on.As soon
as we got on, the heavens opened with a very strong wind. We managed to find some coveron the ferry and got our rain gear out, mentally
preparing ourselves for our ride in the rain to the next short ferry ride
before we get to the island.

We decided to have some more rest
days on the island.The stiffness was
catching up and some of the bruising still a bit sore too. We ended up staying on the island for about 3
days, relaxing a bit, catching up on some reading and enjoying a few medicinal
beverages, i.e. beer.

There are loads of expats on the
island and also lots of tourists, although it was still very quiet when we were
there.It was only the start of the high
season and a lot of places were still closed, or starting with work to fix it
up before the mad rush. Expats and
tourists also normally mean lots of western food.In this case, we managed to find a very nice
German bakery where we had a proper sandwich, our first in a very long
time. I never knew a cheese and salami
sandwich on rye bread could taste so good.We explored the island a little bit, loads of hotels, dive shops and
souvenir shops. To give you an
indication of cost, the place we stayed at cost is 500 Baht per night.A very nice room with air-con, en-suite and
some satellite tv. In high season, the
price skyrockets to about 3000 Baht per night.Who said travelling in low season is bad?

We were all set and ready for our
day to Krabi. We got some fruit and
snacks for breakfast and were going to have it on the ferry to the
mainland.We jumped on the first one and
got about halfway before we started going in circles. Turns out the rudder wasn’t working as it
should.We were drifting for about 20
min or so waiting for another boat to take us to shore. A trip which should take about 15 min ended
up taking us almost an hour – an hour we didn’t really have, because we planned
to do about 90km for the day.We
eventually got to the mainland and made good progress by the time we had our
first break. While travelling along one
of the busier roads we met another cyclist from Japan – he was going the other
direction but we had a good chat with him about where he had been.

We were almost at the end of the
day and had about another 20km to do before we got to Krabi.We were due to have a little break before the
final hour or so of the day when we cycled passed some elephants in an
enclosure with some people around. We
decided to have a stop to see what the place was about.It turns out that it is an elephant
hospital. There were two elephants there
and the one we saw had part of her truck missing – she was tied up with chains
so that the vets could administer medicine and check her wounds.The poor elephant couldn’t pick up fruit with
her trunk, so the locals were feeding her.
One of the ladies gave Mandy some apples to feed to the elephant.It was such a great experience as there were
no tourists, just locals helping to feed her.
Just as we got back onto the main road, about 11 Porches came speeding
past – I think they were all from Malaysia!

We decided to have another
recovery day Krabi.We had a late start
to the day and by the time we headed out for a stroll and some lunch it was
baking hot! We visited a beautiful
Buddhist temple with a long staircase lined by brightly coloured dragons and
strolled around the town.It didn’t take
us long to realise something was happening here. It was the start of the vegetarian festival
and is being celebrated around the country.As we walked around we heard loads of firecrackers going off and some
processions in the street. We were
having a look in one of the motorbike shops and while in there, one of the
processions came past us.The crazy
people were skewering themselves with metal rods! The one guy had 3 rods going through his
cheeks and another one had one massive one going through his one cheek.This one must’ve been about 3 feet long,
crazy people I tell you. It wasn’t a nice
thing to witness – especially when they removed the rods right there on the
street!The guy seemed to be in a trance
and we could see he didn’t really know what was going on around him – who
knows, he may even have been in a state of shock.

We deliberately planned a shorter
day leaving Krabi. The stop next stop as
only about 35 km away, another beach area called Ao Nang.Krabi province is really famous for the
limestone cliffs, and it was very evident today. Ao Nang is also a very touristy area with
loads of shops lining the streets trying to sell you yet another suit, sarong
or bikini.

We’ve been very fortunate with
planning our routes.We’ve managed to
avoid the real busy roads so far, which makes the riding a lot more
pleasant. No truck or bus speeding past
us, mainly cars and small suv’s.We
spent most of our day cycling through rural villages with lots of rubber and
palm oil plantations.

Our stop for the night was right
next to a small national park with some waterfalls. There were small bungalows right next door to
it – it had a massive king size bed (probably even bigger) made out of concrete
and luckily a comfy mattress.After a
quick shower we headed into the park to see the green pools being filled by
many small waterfalls and pools, it really was very scenic! The jungle was so lush and you could see the
tree roots and how the water flows all around it.

We’ve heard from a lot of people
that Phuket is nice, but also very busy and ‘in your face’, depending where you
go. We never made it to Phuket on our
first visit to Thailand in 1999, so decided we should check it out this time.Our plan was to stop just north of Phuket on
the mainland, but when we got there, it looked a bit grim, so we decided to
head for the island. I was still also
looking for a new helmet, and knew of a few bicycles shops where I might be
able to find a new one.

Our riding for the day was mainly
on the highway this time.We couldn’t
really find any other road along the coast.
It wasn’t too bad as we had a very nice and wide hard shoulder - we did
also pass a very nice temple with a massive monk statue.We eventually crossed the bridge and entered
Phuket and headed for the first beach which was about 20kms away. It was also time for some rain again, which
made it a bit unpleasant.We were still
on a busy road and lots of trucks and busses whizzing past, spraying water all
over the place. We were very surprised
as to how busy the roads were and this on a Sunday afternoon.We eventually got to the west coast of the
islands where most of the beaches are.
One thing we didn’t think of when we got to the island was that the
place could be hilly.We were quickly
approaching 100km for the day and by the time we got to the very steep hills on
the other side, we were completely knackered.
Our very last hill was just about the cherry on top and almost got the
better of Mandy.Like always though,
Mandy conquered it, albeit a little bit slower this time because it was the end
of the day.

It turned out to be our biggest
day yet.We did 117km for the day. We were exhausted, that’s for sure.We found some food and a ‘recovery beer’ as
our reward and hit the sack pretty early that night.

03 Nov 2012

Did you know – The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was caused by a 750 mile
rupture in the earth’s surface, creating a powerful earthquake, measuring 9.1
on the Richter scale. The quake continued
for about 10 min along across the fault, about 9 ½ min longer than the average
earthquake.The tsunami struck 12
countries bordering the Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to Somalia. During the first 24hrs, 229,866 people lost
their lives (including those still missing), 430,000 homes were destroyed and
about 5 million people lost their livelihoods.The countries which lost most lives were Indonesia (167,736 people), Sri
Lanka (35,322 people), India (18,045 people), Thailand (8,212 people).

We had a little sleep in the next
morning – I think we got up around 8am.
We were only due to ride about 15 km to get to the main area of Phuket,
called Patong.It was a challenging 1kms
after our long day, with unexpected very steep hills again. We made it though, pushing up some of the
very steep parts.

Patong is a bit ‘Marmite like’,
you will either love it or hate it.We
didn’t particularly like it for a couple of reasons. There were too many tourists (and it wasn’t
even high season yet), too many tailors trying to sell you suits, every second
person asking you if you want a taxi, and freaking Thai massage ladies spilling
into the streets all the time trying to get your custom. Then off course you
have the bit Patong is also famous for; the nightlife.I don’t mind appreciating the beauty of some
of the ladies, but when every Tom (a girl), Dick(a he-she) and Harry( a prostitute)
tries to pull you into a bar, it gets a bit tiresome. This, combined with all the touts pushing
little cards into you hand advertising sex shows is not the ‘wholesome’ fun we
were after.Anyway, enough ‘goody
2-shoes’ – we spent a few days there relaxing and recovering in our little
hotel before our next move.

The next move was supposed to be
further south but the weather wasn’t playing along, so we decided to leave
Phuket and head north.We made some
arrangements to meet fellow travellers further up the coast, an Australian
couple travelling by truck.

We had a couple of days riding to
get to the spot where the Ozzies, Robert and Clary, were camping. They were rather uneventful days, maybe with
the exception of coming into Khao Lak, where we had very nice views of the sea
and secluded beaches.All of these
obviously owned by the massive resorts set up in the area. This and the fact that it was a very hot few
days again on the road.We were lucky
enough to have a fridge in our room and put all our water bottles in the
freezer. They didn’t stay frozen for
very long – it was 35 degreesby 9.30.

We got to Khao Lak in the early
afternoon. This area was worst hit by
the 2004 Tsunami, and they are still trying to rebuild some of the communities
in the area.Most of the families were
affected by it in some way or another.

We eventually got to the spot
where Robert and Clary were camping. It
was a great spot, right on the beach.We
met the owner of the nearby restaurant and he said it would be fine for us to
put our tent up and we can use his toilets and water. It didn’t take us long to get our tent up,
finding a nice spot amongst coconut and palm trees, with shade for most of the
day.Once we had our tent up we went to
chat to our new ‘neighbours’. It turns
out Robert and Clary are originally from Holland but have lived in Australia
for many years and are now on a round the world trip.They also introduced us to their friends Mark
and Joyce from England who were staying at the posh hotel next door.

The tent was very hot to sleep in
as the coastal breeze seems to die down at night.We struggled a bit the first couple of nights
because of the heat and also because we weren’t use to the outside noises
again. It normally takes a few days to
get used to it.During the day we sat
reading on the beach or used the very nice swimming pool at the posh hotel next
door when visiting and chatting to Mark and Joyce. We of course also had to go and visit a small
museum about the tsunami.A very sad
place, indeed. The guy running the restaurant
lost both his children in the tsunami.He
was at home and when the wave hit, his children were holding his hands as they
tried to run away but they got swept away from him, a 4 year old son and a 2 ½
year old daughter. He also had a resort
nearby which was also totally washed away and he can’t get enough money from
the government or the banks to rebuild it.

One of the days we were there,
while relaxing in the cool sea breeze, we heard a loud siren go off and someone
speaking in Thai over a loud speaker – when we asked the locals about it they
said it was a drill for if there is another tsunami – pretty scary! Our eyes were peeled towards the sea and the
horizon for a little while afterwards.

We eventually left Khao Lak after
staying there for 4 nights.Joyce and
Mark came round to say goodbye to us all as Clary and Robert were also
leaving. We had arranged to meet up with
Mark and Joyce in Hua Hin where they live, about 250km from Bangkok.

We had beautiful scenery leaving
Khao Lak although it was extremely humid again.Around lunch time we decided to put our waterproof jackets on as there
were dark clouds forming and no sooner had we put them on the skies opened and
it poured. We took cover at a little
shop and watched a little boy run around in his shorts in the rain – just
enjoying the coolness.Along the way we
met up with another cyclist going the other way. We had a long chat to him and he told us that
there was a 73 year old German guy ahead of us, not sure if we will catch up to
him or not.

Our next stop and next big town
was Ranong – the last big town before we cross the country from the west to the
east coast. Ranong was a pretty busy
little town – it’s quite close to Myanmar and a lot of tourists come here to do
the ‘visa run’ where they go into Myanmar and come back into Thailand in order
to extend their Thai visa.

11 Nov 2012

Did you know – Thailand is home to the world’s longest poisonous
snake, the king cobra. The cobra can reach more than 18 feet long, and one bite
from it can kill an elephant. They are found all over Thailand and can grow
longer than 5 meters.They live in dense
forest near water and also in open grassland.
The snake is both active during the night and day.Their diet consists of other snakes, mainly
rat snakes but also pythons, lizards, rodents and birds. A young king cobra is fast and deadly from
the time they hatch.Juvenile king
cobras from Thailand have yellow bands across their black bodies and heads - they
look very different from adult king cobra snakes.

Our ride to Chumphon from Ranong
took us about 2 days. There weren’t any
major towns on the way, so we were preparing ourselves for possible camping in
the hot weather.Luckily, we saw a sign
for a place to stay about 2km south of Kraburi.
It turned out to be a very nice little place.The owner produces his own coffee which we
enjoyed thoroughly, hand picking all the beans and a very manual and laborious
cleaning and roasting process. It tasted
great though and also had some excellent food there.We were very glad that we stayed there
instead of going to the next town which turned out to be a bit run-down and
noisy when we went through it the next morning.

The route also took us very close
to Myanmar. We got to the river
separating Thailand with Myanmar, a river of no more than 100m wide.We could see the locals crossing between the
riverbanks in the long boats. I wonder
if anyone would’ve blinked an eyelid if we decided to cross and enter Myanmar.

The rest of the ride to Chumphon
was very pleasant.We thought we would
have some bigger hills during the day, but it was mostly flat. Our day was filled with a few strange
sites.4 Trucks with massive boats came
past us on the highway as well as seeing some elephants working in a timber
site, moving massive logs around like they weighed nothing. Hopefully they treat the elephants well, but
I have my doubts sometimes.

Just as we entered Chumphon,
merrily cycling along, we came across a Swedish cyclist (also traveling south)
who had been on the road for 9 months! We were apparently the first cyclist he’s seen
for some time. He started in Sweden and
came through Central Asia and China, planning to meet his girlfriend in
Singapore.Hopefully he gets there on
time, as he only had about 3 to 4 weeks left to cover more than 1,500kms.

Highway 4 on the east coast is
notorious for being very busy and a place to avoid as a cyclist. For this very
reason we decided to try and stick to the smaller roads on the coast. It will certainly add some km to our days,
but much better than having to negotiate all the trucks and cars on the
highway.

We quickly left Chumphon and made
our way onto the quiet roads – it was so nice to be on almost traffic free
roads cycling through the villages and saying hi to the locals. The only damper on the day was that it
started raining a bit, but it was a great excuse for an early tea and coffee
break.While having our tea break, we
started seeing farangs (foreigners) coming past us on bicycles – it was a
massive group on an organised bicycle tour.
No-one was carrying any luggage; all had very light road bikes (probably
weighing about 7 or 8kg compared to our 40-50kg).It must be nice to have back-up vehicles
carrying all your bags!

We got to our destination for the
day. Ban Boet beach seemed to be more of
a local holiday destination, but we did managed to find a nice resort to stay
in.We even got a discount because we
were foreigners and foreigners don’t usually visit the area. The food was definitely catering for the local
Thai pallet too – we can handle our spice but the green curry that night nearly
blew our eyebrows off!

We left our hotel the following
morning after a very small cup of coffee and some rice soup for breakfast –
weird but tasty!Our route for the day
took us through lots of small villages and palm trees. We were heading to the next beach area of Ban
Krut.This is more tourist orientated
and the prices suggested it too. Each
time we stopped at a place to check what they would charge for a room, we got
offered a cold drink which was nice and we made full use of it.We did manage to find a nice hotel within our
budget though. While having some lunch I
spotted 2 cyclists going past.Before I
could even try to get their attention, they were gone again. We went for a walk in the afternoon on the
beach and did eventually bump into them.They decided to camp at the local Wat (temple) for the night and were
relaxing a bit on the beach, waiting for the sunset. They were both from France and also on the
way to the north.These were the first
cyclist we met going in the same direction as us. We did for a brief moment think about cycling
together, but we never discussed it with them.This was probably a good thing, because they cover a lot more mileage
than us per day.

Ban Krut (our stop for the night)
has a Disney-like looking temple and massive golden Buddha on a hill top nearby
which we had seen from the beach the day before. We decided to head up the hill to see the
temple and Buddha when we left in the morning.Wow, it was a steep hill and quite a challenge first thing in the
morning, with legs still half asleep and not knowing how to pedal properly!! We had only done 3kms by the time we got to
the top but it felt like we had been cycling for half a day!We were rewarded with a great view and a
magnificent statue and temple.

We also spotted our first live
snake on the road that day.It was a
massive on, probably about 1 ½ - 2 meters long and the colours of a King
Cobra. Luckily for us, it just about crossed
the road when we passed and disappeared into the long grass area next to the
road.Our route for the day took us past
lots and lots of coconut trees and discarded coconut shells. Really ‘of the beaten track’ on some dirt
back roads, we came across some locals who were shelling and peeling the
coconuts.We decided to stop and stare
at them a bit to see what they were doing.
This was definitely the first step in the process of getting the coconut
milk in little tins in the shops in the western world, or the dry coconut
flakes in the shops.After a bit of
staring and trying to make some conversation, asking lots of questions, one of
the girls gave us the seed inside to try.
It almost had the texture of watermelon and was nice and juicy, but with
a coconut taste.We also had some sweet
coconut water from the young coconuts and also the fresh young flesh. It was a great experience to see all the work
that goes into producing coconut milk which we can so easily buy in the shops.

We rolled into Prachuap Khiri Khan
around 4pm in the afternoon and ended up cycling through a military base, including
their airstrip, to get into town.Once
we had checked into our homestay we met a Chris and Ina (from NZ and Germany)
who were travelling by motorbike from Germany back to NZ. Travelling the way we do creates an instant
connection with fellow like-minded travellers.

We decided to have a rest day in
Prachuap Khiri Khan.The place we stayed
at was very pleasant with a friendly owner and there is something about the
town which makes it very pleasant. After
all, we also had some other travellers to chat to for the time we were there.

23 Nov 2012

Did you know – Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakhon Pathon (approx. 50km
west of Bangkok) is the tallest stupa in the world with the height of 127
metres (417 ft). The name means Holy
chedi (stupa) of the beginning. The stupa at the location is first mentioned in
Buddhist scriptures of the year 675, however archaeological findings date back
to the 4th century. In the 11th century it was overbuilt with a Khmer (Ancient
Cambodia) style prang, which was later overgrown by the jungle. The ruin was
visited several times by the later King Mongkut during his time as a monk, and
after his coronation he ordered the building of a new and more magnificent
chedi at the site. After 17 years of construction it was finished in 1870, and
the population of nearby Nakhon Chai Si was ordered to move to the newly
created town around the chedi.

Our new German/Kiwi friends found
a nice place for breakfast, and we decided to go there the day we left.It was a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs and
potato wedges, just what we needed to keep us going for the morning!

Our route for the day wasn’t that
exciting – we had to ride on the main highway for a short while, but managed to
find the smaller roads again.Our route
took us through a small national park where we had a nice rest break at a
temple nestled in the mountains. The
road and scenery after the park was very boring.There were loads of prawn farms all around us
for about 15-20km. There was a lot of
activity in and around the farms, with makeshift ‘factories’ at the side of the
road – a team of about 20 workers sorting through the fresh prawns, putting it
all on ice straight away, before the big trucks take their loads to
Bangkok.Some of it was for local
restaurants, but a lot being exported to Japan too. The women in charge told us that their
wholesale price is THB2000 for 20kg – that is about £2/kg.

Mark and Joyce (the couple we met
in the south of Thailand) very kindly invited us to stay with them for a while
in Hua Hin.Our ride for the day was a
short one, as we only stayed about 30km or so from the town. We had an easy day, having a nice long tea
and coffee break on one of the beaches outside of town.

We managed to find Joyce and Mark’s
place, or rather, Joyce found us on the main road about 2km away from their
house.It made finding their house a lot
easier as we followed her into their complex.
After a quick shower and catch up we sat down to a very, very tasty meal
of roast pork with stuffing, potatoes and the full trimmings– it was such a
great meal and a good change for us after all the Asian food we have been
having!

A big thank you to both Joyce and
Mark, for letting us stay there with them for a few days. The timing was perfect as we were getting a
bit ‘road weary’ and some normality was very nice.Hopefully we can return the favour one day.

Our progress to Bangkok was right
on track. By the time we left Hua Hin,
we had just under a week to get there to meet Craig and Sarah, having only
about 200-250km to do.We could take our
time and do what we do best; stay on the small roads. Everyone we’ve spoken to so far suggested to
us to rather not cycle in Bangkok because of the hectic roads.We’ll make a call on that the closer we get –
all depending on the route planning and if we can stay off the big highways.

After being in Thailand for more
than a month, we eventually tried the local breakfast dish of rice
porridge. A very simple dish, almost
like oats, but made of rice, with the added flavour of a savoury taste of pork
and egg.To this they add an egg you mix
in and it cooks a little bit in the hot porridge.

We found a nice little homestay
in the town of Phetchaburi. It looked
relatively new and so much better than the other run down places we saw.We spent a day strolling around town and
generally doing nothing.

Our next destination was the town
of Damnoen. This town is generally known
for its floating market and visited by busloads of tourists on day trips from
Bangkok.We had a very pleasant ride to
the town. There must’ve been a lot of
rain the last couple of days because the roads we were travelling on flooded in
a few places.We had 4 ‘water-crossings’
we had to manoeuvre with the bikes. We
made it, without falling off and getting too wet – only our sandals got wet in
some of the deeper ones.We also came
across a live cobra on the road, but made sure we stayed well clear of it.

We have noticed a big increase in
‘Wats’ (Buddhist temples) the further away from the south we’ve travelled. There is a big Muslim influence towards the
south of Thailand, more than I thought it would be.This means we have a lot of nice temples to
look at on the road. We came across one
of the more unusual examples on the way to Damoen.This particular temple had lots of statues of
what looked like karate poses.

The place was very busy so we
decided to have a look inside.We
ventured further into the site where there were a lot more people and found a
Buddha inside a tree trunk and people were putting pieces of gold leaf onto the
Buddha. The whole thing was covered in
it.I can only imagine how long a statue
covered in gold leaf would last in South Africa…

After the excitement of the day,
our thoughts immediately turned to food as we cycled passed something we’ve
seen so often. What looks like a massive
bbq, with short bamboo piece roasting on the coals.The bamboo contains sticky rice with some
sort of sweet milk and a type of bean.
It was very tasty and just what we needed to get the energy levels back
to what it should be.

The floating
markets of Damnoen were really not worth it.I would’ve been very disappointed if I had paid for a daytrip from
Bangkok. All we could see, were some
local women selling mostly tourist tat, with the odd person selling some fruit
or flowers; a mere shadow of the former glory of what it would’ve been like as
a real market and not a tourist site.Nevertheless, our ride through the surrounding areas were really nice
with lots of canals (almost reminded us a bit of Holland, just not as clean)
coconut plantations, mango and lime trees and even some vineyards.

The town of
Nakhon Pathom meant another rest day for us, and it also meant we could have a
Thai massage again. This sounds a lot more
relaxing than what it really is.It is
almost like a combination of a physio and a chiropractor trying to pull you
apart. Away from the tourist spots, they
show no mercy and get on with it.It
does wonders for sore legs, probably the fact that you forget about muscles
being sore and stiff from cycling, but rather just trying to survive the whole
massage experience; an hour massage for THB200 (about £4), definitely not a bad
deal.

It was almost
time for the big smoke of Bangkok. After
talking about it and looking at the routes into the city, we decided to cycle
into Bangkok, after all, we did survive the madness of Jakarta.We managed to plan a route avoiding all the
highways and it wasn’t too busy either.
The outskirts start about 30km from the centre and progressively got
busier, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Besides from
the milestone of actually making it into Bangkok, we also had another milestone
for the day – we clocked up 5000km.Who
would’ve thought when we set off that we’ll survive life on 2 bicycles for so
long? This trip is so different on so
many levels compared to our first one.The heat alone is enough to make or break you.

Our actual route planning in the
city itself wasn’t that great – we managed to cycle through the busy China town,
not once, but twice, looking for a place to stay. We eventually decided to stay near Khao San
Road area.The place we stayed at was ok
but had very steep steps inside the room to the bedroom and a window
overlooking a wall half a meter away – a small price to pay for knowing the
bikes will be safe for the night.

After a quick shower and dinner
we stared the hunt for a hotel for us and Craig and Sarah – the hotels were
quite a bit more expensive than what we had been paying but that’s to be
expected. Our main problem was getting
the bikes into our room or being able to leave them somewhere secure – most
places did not have this option.We
eventually found a great little place in a quiet street where we could take the
bikes into our room which would be helpful for when Craig arrived and would
need to assemble his bike.

Being in Bangkok also meant that
we had access to good bikeshops.We
thought it would be a good idea to have a proper service done before we set off
on the next 5000km. I especially wanted
to service the hubs and bottom brackets on the bikes, not because anything was
wrong with it, but just to be sure.

Our first task for the following
day was to get to the bike shop so that they have enough time do to the work.The first shop we got to couldn’t help us
because their main mechanic was in Phuket competing or working at a
triathlon. The manager very kindly
recommended another shop only 10 minutes away.He also phoned the shop to make sure they will be able to help us.

We weren’t the only ones having
some work done on the bikes. At the
second bike shop we met a French couple cycling with their 3 children!!They had 2 tandems, with the mother and one
daughter on the one, and the dad and eldest son on the other one with a little
trailer behind them for their 2 ½ year old youngest son. We arranged to meet up with them the following
night for dinner.We chatted for a
little while longer and left our bikes at the shop.

It was almost time for us to go
to the airport to meet Craig and Sarah.
I’m not sure who were more nervous about the next 3 months on the road,
Craig or us.Mandy and I are both set in
our travelling ways and travelling with someone else will certainly be a big
adjustment. They say it will either make
or break a relationship or friendship.I’m pretty sure it will be all good though.

05 Dec 2012

Did you know – The image of reclining Buddha is 15m high and 43m
long with his right arm supporting the head with tight curls on two box-pillows
of blue, richly encrusted with glass mosaics. The 3m high and 4.5m long foot of
Buddha displays are inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They are divided into 108
arranged panels, displaying the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be
identified like flowers, dancers, white elephants, tigers and altar
accessories. Over the statue is a seven tiered umbrella representing the authority
of Thailand. There are 108 bronze bowls in the corridor indicating the 108
auspicious characters of Buddha. People drop coins in these bowls as it is
believed to bring good fortune, and to help the monks maintain the Wat.

After dinner on our first night
we started the hunt for a hotel for us and Craig and Sarah – the hotels were
quite a bit more expensive than what we had been paying but that’s to be
expected. Our main problem was getting
the bikes into our room or being able to leave them somewhere secure – most
places did not have this option.We
eventually found a great little place in a quiet street where we could take the
bikes into our room which would be helpful for when Craig arrived and would
need to assemble his bike.

After a long flight of about 11
hours for Craig and Sarah, they arrived safely in Bangkok. Most importantly, Craig’s bike looked to be
all good with no damage from the airline.We had a few things to do in Bangkok, one of which was to have our bikes
service. We tracked down the shop before
we went to the airport and left it with them to be picked up in a few
days.While at the bike shop, we bumped
into some fellow cyclists. A French
couple doing a very similar route to us, but they are travelling with their
children of 9 years, 8 and about 2 ½.They are on two tandems and a little trailer for the youngest child.

There is lots to do in Bangkok
and we certainly had enough to keep us busy for the week there with Sarah before
she had to head back to reality. We went
to the main tourist attractions of the Grand Palace with the Emerald Buddha
statue, Wat Pho with the massive reclining Buddha.A lot of our time was spent walking around
markets, shopping districts and off course eating. Between all of this, Mandy even had some time
for a haircut.We also managed to finish
a big bottle of whiskey between us the one night which slightly delayed our
sightseeing plans (completely cancelled for some of us who shall remain nameless
for now) the following day. We found a
nice little jazz/blues type pub and enjoyed a bit of live music on Sarah’s last
night in Bangkok.

Before we knew it, it was time
for Sarah to go home after her short holiday with Craig (and us) and just about
time for us to hit the road again.We
had our escape route planned out of Bangkok, again trying to avoid the major
roads. The day started well and traffic
wasn’t too bad – Craig did managed to catch his one front pannier on a car
though, which pulled on his mudguard.A
quick pit stop was needed to realign everything again before we got going.

The route we planned wasn’t that
great – we had a long stretch of dusty roads because of road works and we were
also travelling along a stinky canal.
The road did eventually improve the closer we got to our intended
overnight stop of Bang Pa In.We
stopped to ask a friendly local woman if she knew of a hotel in the area, and
she pointed us in the right direction. I
thought the name of the hotel was Sweet Inn, but it turned out to be Sweet
Teen.As we approached and looked at the
rooms, it became apparent why the unusual name.
There were mirrors all over the place, most of the walls and the
ceiling.Our room also had a Jacuzzi,
Craig’s room had a nice round bed, and all the rooms had little red and green
lights outside…on the bright side, it was very clean and reasonable.

We managed to get through the
night without any knocks on the door of people offering their services or even
worse, wanting services from us. It was
to be a short day’s ride to Ayutthaya, but it was hot and dusty again.We got to the town just after lunch and
managed to find much improved accommodation for the next few nights – a great
little homestay guesthouse with a very sweet old lady running it.

We were going to spend a couple
of nights in Ayutthaya, but had to change our plans a bit. I wasn’t feeling too well after the previous
night’s dinner.It was an oily affair of
fried chicken and oily pancakes with curry.
Luckily I was feeling a lot better the next day, good enough to do some
sightseeing in the ancient ruin city of Ayutthaya, once the capital city of
Thailand.I also made sure I was well
enough to at least have a celebratory yummy ice cream for my birthday.

09 Dec 2012

Did you know – The begging bowl
is one of the simplest but most important objects in the daily lives of
Buddhist monks. It is mainly used as a bowl to collect alms of either money or
food from followers. It also has a symbolic
significance linked with the historical Buddha. According to one legend, when
he began meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree, a young woman offered him a golden
bowl filled with rice, thinking he was the divinity of the tree. He divided the
rice into 49 portions, one for each day until he would be enlightened, and
threw the precious bowl into the river.

Jacques was feeling much better
the following day so we left Ayutthaya and managed to do around 70kms past lots
rice fields – this must be the ‘rice bowl’ of Thailand.The following day was more of the same – lots
of rice field and quite a few Wats (Buddhist temples) and even some swimming
water buffalo. For lunch we decided to
stop at a one of these wats and for the second time that day experienced Thai
hospitality – one of the monks brought us ice, drinking and cooking water,
napkins, coffee and even some soap and sponge to wash our dishes!

Our last hotel in Thailand had a
pool, bonus! The ride there was our
fastest ride so far with an average of around 18kms per hour, we did 89km with
a temperature of around 40deg.We had a
rest day to enjoy the pool.

The route to the border was busy
and boring but luckily didn’t take us too long.
After some back and forth on the Thailand side completing our forms we
were stamped out of Thailand and joined the queue to get into Cambodia – after
a long wait we were finally in and wow what a different country!Very smelly, busy, dusty and they drive on
the wrong side of the road! We have read
that the border town does not reflect the rest of Cambodia – let’s hope that’s
true!

Final Thoughts:

We had been to Thailand before as
well in 1999 so it has special memories for us – but this time we certainly saw
a lot more of the country in a completely different way. The cycling was great as there were often
nice big shoulders to cycle in and the traffic wasn’t too bad either.With good cycling, good food (most of the
time) and nice beaches, it’s definitely a place to visit.